When a Poem Works and When It Does Not

Poetry as one of the elements of art passed many stages in history. During the pre-industrial era poems served education dramatically because it can be memorized much faster than normal texts. In addition poems contributed in directing nations and societies into various ideological patterns especially during both world wars. Therefore, the importance of poetry mostly was used to concentrate on waking up nations to proclaim their basic rights loudly and fearlessly, whereas the influence of poems started to diminish among the developed nations who had obtained the opportunity to practice their inalienable rights.

Poems used to have a great impact on societies. The more disputes and conflicts there are among the nations, the faster poems soak into the society. It is obvious that in the early 19th century, religion used to have more influence than the concept of nationalism. This led people to gather based on religious ideas rather than on culture and ethnicity, like the Ottoman and Persian empires in the Middle East. After both world wars, many nations gathered under their ethnic groups and tried to declare their own state in their territory. However, some of them did not succeed in creating a self-state based on their ethnicity, like the Kurdish people, but they persisted to rescue their languages and culture regardless of many impediments such as the banning of education in the mother language and even the banning of speaking in the mother language in public.

The first Kurdish epic poem written down by Ahmed Khani in 1692 and published in 1919 in Istanbul, Turkey. There were many Masters and Ph.D. dissertations about Ahmed Khani’s epic poem “Mem u Zin,” in addition to translations into several languages like English, German and French. Also many scholars have analyzed the Ahmed Khani epic poem, for instance, “recently, Michael Chyet, an American scholar of the Kurdish language, has written a contemporary analysis of the epic; and Mehmet Emin Bozarslan, a Kurdish scholar living in Sweden, has translated it” (http://kurds_history.enacademic.com/374/Mem_u_Zin). “The poem itself is based on the earlier Kurdish epic Mame Alan and runs for more than 2,650 distichs or couplets, termed methnewi in Kurdish. Its plot concerns tragic lovers and has been called by some a Kurdish Romeo and Juliet. Mem and Zin were two lovers. Bakir's intrigues caused the death of Mem. Zin then died of grief mourning over her lover's grave. She was buried next to Mem's grave” (Michael M. Gunter, Historical Dictionary of the Kurds, kurds_history.enacademic.com/374/Mem_u_Zin#sel=)

Dr. Kamal Mirawdeli, a Kurdish scholar, analyzed Khani’s work and portrayed the missives conveyed by Ahmed Khani to the Kurdish people. Dr. Kamal unveiled Zin’s wisdom and the realization and fulfillment of existential responsibility as a human being, who is one of the main Characters in the story. He grouped Zîn’s resurrection into five points. The most important one is protecting the Mir’s (prince) dignity and the principality’s reputation (http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2012/10/state6543.htm).

“In order to protect authority, honor and dignity the soul would not leave until today it remained firm waiting your permission for union”